| Melodi Grand Prix | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Various |
| Location | Norway |
| Years active | 1960–present |
| Founders | Norsk rikskringkasting (NRK) |
| Website | Official website |
Melodi Grand Prix (Norwegian:[mɛlʊˈdiːɡrɑŋˈpriː]), commonly known asGrand Prix andMGP, sometimes asNorsk Melodi Grand Prix, is an annualmusic competition organised by Norwegian public broadcasterNorsk rikskringkasting (NRK). It determinesits entry for theEurovision Song Contest, and has been staged almost every year since 1960.
The festival has produced threeEurovision winners,a non-winning televote winner and nine top-five placings forNorway at the contest. However, Norway holds the record for the number of entries who have come last since entering Eurovision; 12 in all. Despite this, the competition still makes considerable impact on music charts in Norway and other Nordic countries, with the 2008 winner topping the Norwegian charts.[1]
The Eurovision Song Contest began on 24 May 1956 with its first edition inLugano,Switzerland. Norway's first contest was the fifth, the1960 contest. The first Melodi Grand Prix was held on 20 February at the NRK headquarters inOslo. Ten songs competed in the radio semi-final, held on 2 February, where the top 5 songs would progress to the televised contest. However this number was increased to 6 after three songs tied for fourth place. The winner of the televised contest was "Voi Voi", performed byNora Brockstedt. Brockstedt performed Norway's first Eurovision entry inLondon on 29 March, and placed a respectable fourth. Brockstedt also went on to win the following year's contest as well with "Sommer i Palma".
Melodi Grand Prix has failed to be staged on three occasions. In 1970, Norway was absent from the contest because of a Nordic boycott of the voting system, which had led to a four-way tie for first place at the 1969 contest.[2] In 1991, the event was canceled after the NRK understood that the quality of the competing songs was weak and opted for an internal selection to choose the song to go toRome. The final instance of no Melodi Grand Prix was in 2002, when Norway was relegated from competing in the2002 contest after finishing in last placethe previous year. The 2020 edition of Melodi Grand Prix was the first instance where the winner did not participate in Eurovision, asthe contest itself was cancelled due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.
All winners of Melodi Grand Prix have gone on to represent Norway at the Eurovision Song Contest, apart from the 2020 winner after theEurovision Song Contest 2020 was cancelled due to theCOVID-19 pandemic. Norway has won it three times: in 1985, 1995 and 2009. Norway has also come last 12 times, more than any other nation: in 1963, 1969, 1974, 1976, 1978, 1981, 1990, 1997, 2001, 2004, 2012, and 2024.
The following table lists those entries which finished fifth or higher at Eurovision:
| Year | Song | Artist | Position | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1960 | "Voi Voi" | Nora Brockstedt | 4th | 11 |
| 1966 | "Intet er nytt under solen" | Åse Kleveland | 3rd | 15 |
| 1985 | "La det swinge" | Bobbysocks | 1st | 123 |
| 1988 | "For vår jord" | Karoline Krüger | 5th | 88 |
| 1993 | "Alle mine tankar" | Silje Vige | 5th | 120 |
| 1995 | "Nocturne" | Secret Garden | 1st | 148 |
| 1996 | "I evighet" | Elisabeth Andreassen | 2nd | 114 |
| 2003 | "I'm Not Afraid to Move On" | Jostein Hasselgård | 4th | 123 |
| 2008 | "Hold On Be Strong" | Maria Haukaas Storeng | 5th | 182 |
| 2009 | "Fairytale" | Alexander Rybak | 1st | 387 |
| 2013 | "I Feed You My Love" | Margaret Berger | 4th | 191 |
| 2023 | "Queen of Kings" | Alessandra | 5th | 268 |
Unlike many of the other European broadcasters responsible for Eurovision Song Contest national finals, most editions of Melodi Grand Prix have survived in NRK's archives, with only seven editions missing: 1960–1964, 1968, and 1972, while 1973 only exists as a low-quality off-air recording. Since 2014, NRK has digitised all existing Melodi Grand Prix editions and published them on its digital platform, where they are available for viewing worldwide. As the holder of the rights to theEurovision Song Contest 1986 and1996, NRK also made them available on its platform.[3]
As revealed during the re-broadcast of theEurovision Song Contest 1968 on 18 September 2021 as part ofEurovisionAgain, in addition to its own productions, the NRK archives have also been helpful to theEuropean Broadcasting Union's archival project for the Eurovision Song Contest, with the sole existing colour copy of the Eurovision 1968 final (which was the first edition to be broadcast in colour) being recovered from the NRK archives, alongside copies of several other contests, including 1960, the year of Norway's debut in Eurovision.[4]
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